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Dear Ethan,
Babies grow so fast! I’d never found it so true until I became a mom. How could a human being grow so much flesh, fat, muscle……by only drinking liquid? Right, breastmilk is nutritious. I always wonder if it could save Tom Hanks in “Cast Away”. Anyway, you stopped my worry of your being too skinny anymore. At 4 months, doctor told us that you were in the 95th percentile in terms of length, and 75th percentile in terms of weight. You are a huge baby!
When we told someone how old you were, we were always given those unbelievable looks! “Wow, when my son was 5 months old, he’s not that big!”, that’s what people usually said. Last weekend when we went shopping in a mall, I saw a baby probably 2/3 of your body size. I thought he could never be older than you. When I accidentally got closer to the baby, OMG, he has all his teeth grown already!!!! And your first 2 are only 40% grown! Oh, you know what Ethan, at 6 months, you are already wearing pants for 12-18 months!
So, we’ve decided not to use your figure as a benchmark to estimate other babies’ age. And unless we’re asked to, otherwise we won’t disclose your age, mom and dad don’t want to embarrass other moms and dads. Honestly, I’m pretty proud of you. You are handsome and cute, you are tall and big, but not too chubby. I really want you to stay that way growing up. Just in case you are too attractive, remember not to bring too much relationship troubles home though.
Your dad always says I’m a paranoiac. When I should be very happy with your physical growth, I started to worry about your other developments. Your mom have been reading lots of baby growth books that I thought I knew what and when a baby should accomplish certain milestones. So I started to observe your developments. When you should be able to roll over from tummy to back at 3 months, you cried the hell out of it when being put on your tummy; when you should grasp an object with you hands at 4 months, you didn’t even give that object a glance; when you should hold bottle with both hands at 5 months, you just kept slapping it with your palms maybe trying to make the content flow faster into your mouth……One thing I do worry though: with your abnormally big body, people might be wondering how come a 1-year old still can’t manage walking when you are actually just at 6 months. I did regret that I didn’t start training you to walk when you were 4 months old.
I was trying my very best to train you to touch the toys dangling from the bars over the play gym, but most of the time you’d just be lying there staring at them. Sometimes you’d tip the toys by using your feet. Yes, you do have strong legs. You can really hurt my stomach with your legs non-stop kicking when I’m changing you on the changing pat. I started to wonder if you could write calligraphy with your feet someday. Until a couple weeks ago, you started to reach your hands out to grasp the toys by yourself. You loved to grasp with your left hand, and at the same time roll over your body by turning to your right. I was confused, you should’ve reached these 2 milestones in 2 separate months according to the books I read. How could you do these all at once? Totally fascinated, I decided to give up what I’ve read from the books, and let you do whatever and whenever you feel like doing. Afterall I want you to be a happy baby, not a perfect baby. When you have your own kid, tell your wife not to obsess with those books, they just confuse you.
Finally, we have a confession to make, we did shave your head when you were 3 months old. You were a little sad.
Love,
Mommy